The flame inside us
by Flowing lantern
Summary: Defan AU/ Damon and Stefan are both working in a coal mine in their home town, but when things get heated and people start dying, they are the ones who have to lead a rebellion against the cruel and powerful Mikaelson family that ownes the mines. Will they be able to withstand the difficulties and change things for good?
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hey, guys! This is a request I got from a friend of mine on tumblr, which was inspired by an AU prompt that suggested that the characters are involved in a rebellion against the government, but I changed it to just a rebellion because it was more fitting to me. When I began writing, it turned out to be too long for a one-shot, so I decided to make it a mini story with three chapters! There's also some Bamon in here as well as moments between Stefan and Bonnie, besides all the Defan. I hope you enjoy it and I will appreciate your reviews!**_

* * *

 **Damon's POV**

I was sitting at a table in our favorite bar, the only place we could rest after a long working day at the mines, surrounded by a bunch of dark dirty faces, bruised and battered hands, eyes full of hope.

Stefan, my little brother, who joined the working class just six months ago, was on the wooden squeaky chair next to me, fiddling with the hat in his hands, listening to me carefully as I spoke up to everyone here. He looked up to me. They all did.

I've been working in the coal mines for four years now, because someone had to figure out a way to support a fourteen year old teenager just after we've lost our mother, the only living parent we had at the time.

Our father died ten years ago, at an incident in the same mine we were working at right now, leaving my mother to deal with two boys and try to feed them on her own. I keep thinking that all this working screwed up her health, she barely slept for four hours a night because she had to saw shoes and clothes for the factory she worked in, and try to keep us all fed and well-dressed.

I assume in a way, that's what's going to happen to my brother and me too-working will take the best of us. Stefan has already started coughing and he's been there for six months, I was way worse than him by now, but of course I was trying to put a good face for him-he was afraid of something going wrong and ending up alone in the world, but he never hesitated when he decided to join me underground and get his hands and face dirty just because me and my fiancé have found out that we're going to have a baby.

He said he could never go to college anyway and that he had to find a job, so why not at least work with me. I was against it at first, but then I really didn't have a choice-it wasn't a big town, he couldn't find another place to work at and things were tight at home-we were barely holding up, so he didn't even ask me when he went to sign up his contract-he just did it out of the goodness of his heart.

But now things were getting worse and I was trying to fix them somehow, though I had no idea if I would manage to do anything at all.

"Okay, guys so the plan goes like this-we go there on a Thursday morning and gather in front of the elevators. We refuse to get underground and start working until they consider, that they could bring their rich fat asses to us and hear our demands." a loud "Hell yeah" goes around the table and glasses are raised

"But, but!" I lift my hands up, trying to calm them down. I don't know how it even happened, how I was the person to come up with this "No violence, okay? That's what they want. They want to provoke us, to make us out to be these savages who are willing to hurt them, but we have to be wise about this, do you understand?" I look at every single one of the guys sitting around me and they all nod, letting my words sink in, they trust me, they believed in me and if I screwed them up, then this whole thing was for nothing.

"What if we don't manage to change anything?" one of the guys, his name was Tom I think, he reminded me of my brother "What if after all of this, they just fire us? Or decide not to pay any attention to us at all?"

"They need us more than we need them" I explain the simple truth "And as far as not paying attention goes" I sigh "they let ten of our people die last week. Our friends, co-workers, who were also fathers, husbands, brothers. If we allow this to die out and not raise our voices while we still can, then we can't really call ourselves people, because I don't know about you" they were all mesmerized by me, I don't know how I did it, but I felt like they're not even breathing when I spoke like this

"But I can't live with myself knowing that they let them die like dogs under the ground, buried in this hell on earth. We all seem to be sympathetic and care about them, thinking how their wives and children are suffering, but we don't really stop and think that one day this could be happening to our families." they all silently agreed with me and stared down at the dusty old table, holding their beers with their black rough hands.

Every now and then someone would look up at me with glassy eyes full of hope for a better future and they would appear to me like a shiny starts in the darkness of their sooty faces, breaking my heart in two.

"Speaking of that" Ric, another one of the workers and a good friend of mine "I talked to Matt's wife Caroline and she said that they'll come and support us on Thursday."

"Okay, that's good. I think we should do something for them too, maybe bring them some stuff for the kids, food, clothes things like that, make sure they have our support."

"I'm on it" Tom promised with his hoarse voice and I nodded gratefully at him.

We repeat the plan once again and after we finish our beers, they all stand up, pat me and my brother on the shoulder and leave or move to other tables.

"Come on, we should go" I urge Stefan, who's staring down at his almost empty glass, but he doesn't move and I can see he's lost deep in thoughts, so I squeeze his shoulder with a smile on my face-when he did this, it's like he shut himself off from the whole world and it was hard to bring him back "Hey, what's in your mind, kiddo?" I ask him and he turns to me, trying to give me a fake reassuring smile that everything's alright.

"I'm fine, Damon" he promises and this time he squeezes my shoulder

"I know this expression, Stefan" I keep urging him to speak up "You furrow that eyebrows only when you're worried, so what is it brother?" he sighs and runs his hand through his messy hair whose blond color is currently hidden by a thick black layer of soot. He coughs a bit and takes a sip from his bear to calm his burning lungs down

"I agree that we have to stand up to them and I won't to fight more than anyone, but I'm worried that you're the leader of this whole thing, brother" he admits "It's dangerous."

"What are you talking about, it's not only me-you've been helping me this whole time, talking to the guys, spreading information, convincing them, that we have to do something. You've been actually way more helpful than me-all I do is talk for five minutes and hope they still haven't given up the idea of fighting for their own good."

"No, Damon, you don't only talk, you lead them. Your words are not empty promises, they bring hope in their eyes. Me?" he shakes his head and smiles sadly to himself "I'm just helping you out, but you are the person who makes them believe that they have to stand up for themselves and that is good, but it's also foolish and it can bring you troubles. You have a kid on the way, don't forget that."

"I'm not" I promise as I put my hand on the back of his neck and pull him to my chest "It's all good, kiddo, don't worry."

"Ugh, I'm not a kid, Damon" he protests as he tries to get away from me, but I pull him harder and hug him tight.

The truth is, I was kind of scared for Thursday, not because of me, but because I didn't want them to hurt Stefan. I had to make sure he is at the back of this chain of humans forming in front of the elevators, but I knew that he won't ever let me get myself in the front lines if he's not there to join him.

He feels that I'm worried and he hugs me tightly back as I bury my hand in his messy blond hair and remember a time when we were kids before our father died and how happy the two of us-how loved we felt, because our parents loved us more than humanly possible and despite the fact that we were so poor, they did their best to raise us to be young bright people, who won't give up no matter what life throws at them.

I remember Stefan and I sleeping in one bed, because there was not enough space and we had only two rooms and a gloomy dark kitchen. My little brother, he would often have nightmares and that worried me-he wasn't supposed to be so stressed for a five year old kid. He would wake me up in the middle of the night, tears running down his face and I would pull him to my chest just like now and soothe him until he falls asleep.

He has nightmares now as well, though not every evening. They're awful and they wake me and Bonnie up sometimes. I don't know what is wrong and why he's like that but I don't like it because he can never catch enough sleep and he had to work underground all day long, on top of it he was already coughing a lot and that woke him up easily.

I did that too and I hated myself for ruining my fiancée's sleep, especially when I knew she needed all the rest she could get since she was pregnant and working her ass off at the factory, sewing clothes and shoes just like my mother all day long. I had to make her give up soon and stay home so she could rest more-she was losing weight instead of gaining it and that was freaking me out.

"Come on, let's go home" I say and Stefan finally agrees, throwing his jacket over, grabbing his orange helmet and following me outside.

It was a cold February night and it was lightly snowing. We were dressed in our work clothes, all dirty and dark, in total contrast to the snow surround us. I look down at my shoes and realize that I can feel the wetness in my right foot, which made me curse silently-I had to ask Bonnie to fix them if she can. Staring back at my brother who was walking next to me, I realized how cold he must be with his old worn out jacket, which used to be mine and I scold myself for not taking good care of him.

When we get home, I urge him to get to the bathroom first and take a shower, even though we both knew there won't be any hot water-we were used to the cold by now, even though it was below zero outside.

"And here's my beautiful wife making dinner for her favorite idiots" I say as I enter the kitchen and embrace her with my big strong arms while she keeps staring down at the pan where she's cooking up the meal.

She stretches out and cups my cheek and I turn her around holding her waist with my rough dirty black hands. She smiles and I lean down to kiss her, gently, slowly, it's my way of showing her how much I love the fact that I'm finally home to her and my baby.

My hand instinctively moves to her belly and the baby bump and I caress it , feeling the life growing inside her-our little son or daughter, we still didn't know, because we couldn't afford going to the doctor again after the first time, which confirmed she's pregnant. It's been months since that happened. I was hoping that finally next week we would manage to get to it.

"Hello, little fella!" I whisper as I kneel down and kiss her tummy. She smiles and buries her hand in my ruffled hair, chuckling "You've been good to your mother today?"

"Damon, why do you keep insisting that it's going to be a boy?"

"Because I know you want a girl and I have to keep teasing you." I respond and she chuckles lightly as I stand back up. I let her cup my face and pull me to her lips once again, but this time I lift her gently up and put her on the counter, deepening the kiss and even slightly staining her face with my dirt. She huffs annoyed but lets me continue teasing her with kisses down her neck.

"Damon" she whispers "We have to talk."

"Talk about what?" I say in between the wet kisses that I leave down her neck, hoping that I'll be lusty enough for her to forget why she's kind of mad at me right now, but soon I feel her grabbing the end of my hair and pulling me roughly back

"Damon Salvatore, don't try to seduce me!" she hisses and I sigh tiredly as I pull back from her and take off my dirty jacket tossing it on the chair angrily.

I've just come home from a long day at work and I wanted to be with her, but nope, I guess today I was out of luck.

"That protest that you're guys organizing" she begins as I lean down and start cleaning on the sink, rubbing my face with the soap and coughing out loud.

"What about it?" I ask tiredly as I look for the towel and I feel her handing it to me. She huffs when I stop rubbing my face, and pulls it away from my hands, wetting it again and cleaning up my forehead as I apparently left some soot linger there.

"I don't like this." she announces "It will get both you and Stefan in trouble."

"We'll be fine, Bonnie" I try to shake her off as I head to the couch and lie down to rest my back a bit-I'm hurting like hell.

Soon after my brother joins us dressed in fresh clothes, no trace of dirt on his face and he smiles at Bonnie, greeting her and asking her how she is, but she responds abruptly, not really happy with my answer and he notices it as he sits down on the table and looks between us like a kid staring at his parents and in many ways we were like his parents-I was still taking care of him despite the fact that he was bringing just as much money on the table as I did and Bonnie loved him like a brother. They were very close and he often said she's his best friend.

"What's going on?" he finally dares to ask and I huff out annoyed

"What's going on is that Bonnie here is being a pain in the ass about us being involved in the protest."

"You're not only involved Damon" she raises her voice and Stefan sinks a little big in his chair, so am I when I realize how angry she is "I saw Caroline Forbes today and imagine my surprise when she tells me my fiancé is organizing a riot tomorrow and she's supporting it and how grateful she is that you of all people are leading it, because Matt valued your opinion and looked up to you so much."

"Bonnie-" Stefan tries to intervene and get me out of this thing

"Uh-uh! You guys" she throws her hands in the air tired of our shit "Do you know what you're getting yourselves into? These people are powerful! They let workers die there and managed to cover it all up, so that no one out of this state knows what's going on. A stupid protest is going to be a piece of cake for them."

"It's not a stupid protest" I raise my voice feeling offended at her statement as I sit up in the couch and cross my hands on my chest

"I am trying to make a difference here, to actually help people because one of these days, I might be buried right there with them when a stupid accident occurs because they don't fix or take care of things and then you will be left to take care of a child all by yourself." I stand up as I explain passionately my point and she gives me a confused look

"And no matter what it costs me, I won't stop fighting, because I know what it's like for a kid to grow up without their father and Stefan here" I nod to my brother "is aware of the struggles that this causes and I'm not going to let them to do this- not to me, not to any other family anymore. If you don't understand or accept this, then there's nothing I can do about it, but I'm not going to stop because I'm scared" I finish as I angrily head off the room

"Damon, wait!" I hear her say, but I'm too angry and I know my brother would stop her from following me, because he's aware I need some time on my own.

I go to our room and slam the door in their faces. I know I shouldn't have burst out like this, but I was pretty much pissed off and very cranky right now and I should probably apologize to her later, but I'm so damn exhausted that all I can do is take my clothes off and lie down in our bed, letting myself fall within minutes, thinking how she'll be so pissed off, that I stained the sheets with my dirty hair and my bloody full of blisters hands, which she usually cleaned and patched up, but not tonight.

* * *

I feel her gently shaking my shoulder after what seems like minutes, but it's probably hours. She's smiling apologetically at me and I immediately feel guilty for yelling at her

"Hey" she whispers "Come on, you gotta eat." she urges me to get up and I sit up in bed smiling at her. I brush away a stand of hair behind her ear and pull her to my chest

"I'm sorry, Bon" I apologize "I feel awful, I should've never yelled like this."

"No, I am sorry for ever doubting you. You were right." she looks up and plays gently with the end of my hair, smiling at me as she says so "Someone has to do something and I'm glad that it's you. I'm proud of it." she assures and it makes my heart swell a little, which is why I lean down and give her a sweet kiss on the forehead "I'm just worried, that's all."

"We'll be fine" I promise her, even though I'm not sure what is going to happen, but I know that I have to believe that things will be alright, that we will win this thing and make a difference. We had to.

Because this was hell on earth and we kept going through it, but the problem was-there might never be an end to it and no matter how hard we wished to come up on the other side, there was no such thing-we had to create it with our bare hands and our loud voices.

She pulls me up and leads me to the kitchen where I notice Stefan already napping on the couch. He had nowhere else to sleep-there was only one bed, which was in our room and Bonnie found this old couch in her parent's house and brought it here so he would have somewhere to sleep that is not a mattress on the floor. I knew that it was very uncomfortable for him and it made his back hurt more, but he wasn't complaining at all-that was my brother, welcoming every difficulty in life with a smile on his face.

As I sat on the table and Bonnie put down the bowl of soup in front of me and brought me more bread I noticed that she has patched up his hands already and he was slightly shivering. This was the coldest room in the house and he always slept with a sweater on, cause he would've frozen to death with this hellish winter outside. We had a small fireplace in our room that kept us warm but he…he had nothing and as I watched him slightly shiver I clenched my fist and sighed tiredly at the realization, that I wasn't taking good care of my brother.

I notice that Bonnie is too tired already, so I sent her to bed while I eat my soup. Lately it's been nothing but soup or beans for us. We haven't eaten meat in two weeks if not more and I knew both Stefan and I needed it so we could have more strength to work. But the truth is, I was mostly worrying about Bonnie-she was carrying a child and she was barely eating enough for two. I hated myself for it. And I hated the fact that Stefan gave all of his salary to us, so that we could be fine. I can't imagine what's going to happen when the baby's born.

"Why are you moping again?" I hear my brother's hoarse voice and I notice he's opened his eyes for a moment again, he's so damn tired for a nineteen year old kid.

"I'm not" I say as I stand up and put the bowl in the sink. I grab the warm kettle from the cooker where Bonnie left it and fill him a good cup of hot tea just as he starts coughing somewhere behind me

"Here, you could use something to warm you up." he grips the cup with his hands and takes a good sip and I smile as I watch him.

"Thanks, brother" he says with his still sleepy voice. I myself take a good sip from the bourbon which we kept in the drawer above the sink and feel it burn my insides. I needed something to help me fall asleep easier.

Stefan furrows his eyebrows at the sight of me doing this, either because he wants some too and I'm not sharing or because he doesn't approve, but I don't give him the opportunity to say anything because I go to get him another blanket and cover him up better. He's just finished his tea and is lying back on the pillow, his eyes half closed, he's already dozing off again.

I tuck him good with the blanket and ruffle his hair

"Sleep tight, kiddo" I say and he mumbles something under his nose, he's probably dreaming already. I take a few minutes to look at him and his tired face and when I'm sure that he's no longer shivering, I go back to our room and pull Bonnie to my chest, making sure I keep her and the baby as warm as I can.

* * *

Next day I wake up Stefan in five in the morning, because we need to get to work first and gather everyone in front of the elevators. We don't eat anything, we just grab a cup of coffee-it turned out we were running out of it too-and we headed there in the cold February morning, freezing as we walked and watched the sun come up.

When we got there most of our people were already waiting for us. My brother went to talk to some of the younger boys and as we planned, we decided to put them on the left side so they won't be as close to the guards if they come up and decide to fight us. Our bosses have hired many people to work for the security department, exactly because they were afraid of protests and they basically had their own small police force, which of course could never outnumber us, but still had guns and truncheons and people were afraid of getting hurt, which of course, I understood.

We've decided that we'll be silent in our protest today, that we won't yell or provoke them, that we'll try to be as peaceful as we can, so when we've all gathered we put our hands over each other's arms and made what looked like a human wall of angry dirty coalminers.

"You scared, kiddo?" I ask Stefan as I throw my arm over his strong shoulders and he looks up at me with a big smile as he shakes his head

"With you by my side, I can never be" he announces and I smile, ruffling his hair.

At first, things do not go as planned. One of the guards come to us and tries to make us go in the elevators and get to work and of course we refuse and we boo him. I tell him that unless someone comes to talk to us and is willing to discuss things with us, we won't move even an inch. He laughs in our faces and leaves.

We continue standing there, it's cold and we're starting to freeze. Some of the guys sit on the ground and light cigarettes, other take out coffee cups and sandwiches and start eating. Ric and Tom pass me a bottle of bourbon to warm my frozen cheeks and I give Stefan some, even though I wanted him to stay sober right now-he was the smarter one, the one with the bright ideas and I wanted to keep him by my side in case I screwed things up. The oldest worker and a good friend of mine, who we called the Captain, lights a fire and some of the guys gather around it, other stay close to us and we talk. I'm trying to keep them all together and convince them not to destroy our rows, because if they do and we leave, then it all goes to hell.

Late in the afternoon, we all get back on our feet and start singing as we see some of the bosses staring at us from the building opposite of the elevators leading to this hell underground. From up there we probably look like a big army, whose only weapons are its voices. The feeling of unity and the idea that we were actually fighting for something here and wanted to be taken seriously, lightens our hearts and we all burn with a fire inside that can ruin those bastards watching from upstairs.

I guess they expected that we would give up at noon and go work, because we needed the money, but we didn't. I managed to convince each and every one of these workers that they have to stay, even though some of them really wanted to just go home or get to work so they have something to bring home at the end of the day, but they didn't.

Stefan helped a lot with this too-he was taming the younger ones, the people from his generation, former classmates, who hated their lives and whose blood was still boiling with anger and resentment towards these people, but who were also unsure as if how this would change things for them and who got easily bored with being so silent all the time. They wanted to yell and scream, toss rocks and fight the guards, but I knew we had to start this peacefully or else we would provoke them and turn out to be the bad guys here-that was not our goal.

Finally, when they realize that we're not giving up like that, three guards and one of the suits, I think he was the manager come to talk to us. They approach us cautiously and the guards are surrounding this stupid idiot, who's afraid that we could hurt him, which makes me smile.

"Okay" he begins "I'm here to talk. Who are the leaders of this charade?" everyone go silent and look up at me and my brother. He smiles as he puts his hand on my shoulder and together we step out of the crowd.

"We are" I say with a steady voice. The suit nods and looks at us all with disgust as if we're not worthy of even existing in his presence.

"Come on, we will talk" he says as he nods at the building.

The guys behind us start yelling supportively stuff like "Kick, ass Damon!" and "Don't let them control us, brother!" and it makes me smile. Stefan follows me as we head to the main building and I slightly furrow my eyebrows when the guards surround us as well from both sides.

I swallow hard, hoping that this is not a trap and decide to act tough, but also not to provoke them right away.

They lead us inside and much to our surprise, we don't end up in another room or anything else right away. We get on the second floor and as we pass by the windows I notice our guys staring from downstairs and cheering loudly for us, waving their fists in the air and smiling-they counted on us and we could never disappoint.

We end up in a relatively big room, which looks like a small palace-the furniture are fancy, there are long shelves full of books, some stupid plants sticking up from every corner as well as something which looked like a sculpture of an old man near the windows. There is a big desk on the other side which is empty much to my surprise and I don't feel really comfortable with the guys still on both our sides. I clear my throat as the manager stands opposite of me and smiles devilishly.

I step up and decide it's time to get to the bottom of this.

"So are we going to discuss matters with you or are any of the other actually important people running this shithole going to join us?" he laughs in our faces and I watch him turn around and cross his arms on his back for a moment before speaking up.

I don't recall his name good, but I think he was Elijah-one of the Mikaelson brothers. This family owned eighty per cent of the company, they were important businessman people and very famous figures in the town's history. People in the entire state knew and feared them-they didn't own only one mine, they had four as well as other companies across the country.

"If you think anyone's ever going to actually take you seriously, you're deluding yourselves" he says with his deep voice and nods to the guards surround us.

Before I know what's going on I feel someone kicking my ankles and I fall to the ground. Stefan grunts somewhere near me as well and when I turn to the left I see his blond head there, anger filling his eyes.

I can't really do anything, I try to fight them as I turn around and attempt to get up but they kick me in the stomach and I realize that they're no longer two-they're more and as I turn to my brother's side, I see three people kicking him in the stomach as well as the face

"You, bastards!" I yell out "Leave my brother alone!" but one of them takes out his truncheon and hits me hard as another one actually steps on my hand and I feel the bones there cracking.

I yell out from the pain and I try to get away or at least grab my brother's hand and pull him to me to keep him safe, but I can't. They're kicking me everywhere and I'm squirming on the floor, I feel the blood on my face and in my mouth and I spit some of it out, my right eye hurts and my hand is burning up just like my guts where they keep kicking and hitting my back or my head and I feel as if I'm going to collapse soon, but my brother's yells and grunts keep me up-I had to get to him, so I kept fighting and trying to stand up until eventually they stopped.

I opened up my eye and saw Elijah staring from above us-the anger burned me up more than any pain ever could and I tried to curse him, but before I opened my mouth he spoke up to the guards

"Bring them up and take them outside" he smiles" The people have to see their heroes." I feel two of them grabbing my arms and bringing me up to my feet. When I look to the left, I see Stefan and his messed up bloody face. They've stripped us of our jackets and our shirts like animals and the bruises and cuts on our chests made us look ridiculously weak.

"Stefan" I whispered and he shook his head, trying to assure me that he's fine, but I knew he wasn't-he looked worse than me and I think they did it on purpose, because they knew how angry I would get when they hurt my little brother.

They take us outside, drag us practically and I can't bring myself to look at the guys standing there waiting for us. When they realize that we're being brought back beaten almost to death, I hear their gasps and their loud voices until we approach them and stand only a few feet away and the silence consumes us all. They stare at us with fear and worry in their eyes, but I see something else as well-respect and anger. They are angry as hell just like I am for doing this to us.

Elijah walks up before us and stretches his hand to me and my brother.

"Whatever you think you're doing, stop it!" he says out loud so everyone can hear him. The wind is chilly and we're sitting on our knees, bloody, bruised and completely humiliated, the guards were holding us tight so we wouldn't try to stand up though I don't think that's necessary-we could barely keep our eyes opened.

"Or you'll end up like them. Any protest activity from now on is completely forbidden-try to rebel and you'll realize how small and insignificant you are. You can't fight us!"

Our people welcome his words with complete silence and I sense the fear that they feel right now-it's in the air and it's making it hard for me to breathe, that or just my injuries prevent me from doing so, but I feel like I'll collapse any minute now.

Elijah turns around and smiles at us again

"If you two don't show up for work tomorrow, you're fired" he announces and I swallow hard. He knows far too well that we don't be able to stand on our feet, let alone work and I can't even clench my hand right now, but I know it has swallowed.

He attempts to surpass us when I hear my brother's voice

"You might've crushed and destroyed a small wave today, Mr. Mikaleson" I turn to him and see him lifting up his bloody face, his eyes barely opened, blood coming down his right cheek form a cut above his eyebrow "But know this-the ocean is enormous and strong-it can drown you whenever it wants."

When he speaks up the crowd in front of us strops breathing for a moment and so do I. We all know he just pissed Elijah off and internally we're joyful that he had the guts to do so-to shove the truth down his throat-we were many, we were angry and we could beat him up.

I've never felt more proud of my brother and I smile as I watch him give Elijah a look full of anger and resentment. My heart clenches though when I see the boss nodding to one of the guards-he raises his truncheon and I yell as I realize what he's about to do.

"Brother!" I scream when I see it fall on the right side of his head. He doesn't even let a sound out, he doesn't have the strength to cry out in pain and I watch them dropping him to the snow. The minute he's down they let me go and I rush to his side, turning his weak light body to me.

The rest of the workers yell out and many of them come by my side and surround me and Stefan.

"Stefan! Stefan, brother, talk to me!" I beg him as I lift up his hand in my lap. He's bleeding out and so am I-I feel sick when I see him trying to look at me with his sad green eyes. He stretches out his hand and grabs my wrist as he grunts painfully ".Stefan, you'll be okay, I promise, you'll be fine!"

"Damon!" I hear Ric's voice behind me and he puts his hand on my shoulder. When I lift my head up I realize that everyone's surrounding us and kneeling down trying to help us

"My brother" I whisper "My brother… they hurt my brother. You have to help me" I beg Ric and he nods

"I will." I look down at Stefan and see how slowly his chest is rising-he can't breathe. His blood was coloring the snow and making me feel sick. It was either this or I was going to collapse from my own wounds

"Ric…" I say as I look up begging him to do something "I..I can't" I say as I feel myself falling on the ground. Stefan's hand is still somewhere in mine but I don't even have the strength to squeeze it. Ric leans over me and starts shaking me, trying to make me talk, but I feel myself losing conscious and everything goes dark.


	2. Chapter 2

**Damon's POV**

I wake up, maybe twenty minutes later and feel a bunch of hands laying me down on our bed. I weakly turn around to see they're placing my brother next to me, a big improvised bandage on his head, his face blue, hopefully from the cold, even though I assume, that he lost a lot of blood and probably so have I.

I turn around and look up to see Bonnie nervously talking to Ric and sitting down to me, grabbing my hand in hers once she realizes my eyes are opened.

"S-Stefan-" I let out, and raise my hands trying to bring their attention to my brother-there are at least four people in our bedroom, I see Tom as well as a few of the other workers, who probably brought us here

"The doctor's coming, Damon, don't worry!" Ric leans down and tells me and I nod. I feel Bonnie's lips on my forehead and I try to ignore all the noise around us, but it's making it so hard for me to think. I stretch out my hand and put it on my brother's, which is cold and irresponsive-God, please save Stefan. Please, keep my brother here.

I hear a man's voice and suddenly most of the workers are urged to leave, though Ric and Bonnie stay with us. I see the Gilberts-Grayson and his daughter Elena enter our small gloomy bedroom and I immediately try to rise up and nod to my brother, but Bonnie pushes me down on the pillow.

"You have to-" I try saying, but a cough interrupts me and I give up, sinking back in the bed. I close my eyes again and take a deep breath as I feel Bonnie squeezing my hair tightly for the last time before moving away and probable letting them take care of me.

"Stefan's worse, we have to take care of his head" I hear Grayson say and I sigh relieved. They had to save my brother first, no matter what. "Elena, start cleaning Damon's wounds!" her father orders and I feel someone's gentle hands touching my face. I open up my eyes for a brief second and try to speak, which is a really hard task right now

"Please…help my brother!" I beg her and she nods with a light smile, which is supposed to calm me down but I'm actually freaking out way more when I turn my head to Stefan again and see Gilbert untying the cloth that the workers put on his head, and reveal the bleeding wound there.

Elena gently turns my head in the opposite direction, even though I try to fight her and I see Bonnie worriedly hovering behind her, wondering what's going to happen now. When she sees me staring at her, she smiles through tears and whispers that she loves me.

I say it back and close my eyes, only to drown back in the darkness and maybe pretend for a moment that everything that happened today is a dream and I'll wake up early tomorrow and go to the coal mine, so I could protest with my brothers there. So we could fight for something that matters.

 _I wake up probably hours later from someone's grunts next to me and it takes me a minute to open my eyes and realize that it's Stefan. Judging by the light coming from the window, I concluded that it must be dawn and as I turned around I noticed my brother squirming in pain-there was a big bandage on his head and I swallowed hard at the sight of his face, even though I felt really bad myself._

 _He was tossing in his sleep and he was probably in pain too, so I tried to move to him a bit and sit up in the bed, which proved to be a difficult task. He was mumbling something under his nose, which I couldn't quite understand, but I finally managed to stretch out my hand to him. Then as I finally looked at it, I realized that they've bandaged it and that's where all this dull pain was coming from. I remember the guard stomping on it and I swallow hard at the memory of my bones cracking. I overcome my pain for my brother, I had to wake him up, because he was really trashing the bed right now from this nightmare_

" _Stefan!" I shake him and the sharp pain in my hand makes me squeeze my eyes and grunt "Stefan, wake up!" I urge him as I try to shake his shoulder_

" _Wake up, you're having a nightmare!" I continue, but he doesn't open his eyes and I realize that I'm not strong enough to do this on my own "Bonnie! Bon, come help me!" I yell at the open door and see the light coming from the kitchen but no one enters our room "Bonnie, where the hell are you?" I continue, while my brother keeps tossing under my bandaged hand_

" _Goddammit, Stefan, stop this!" I yell at him "Wake up! Wake up, brother!" and he finally does turn to my side and open his eyes, breathing heavily. "Thanks God!" I finally sigh relieved_

" _What is going on?" I ask him but he just shakes his head and I see his mouth open as he lets out a painful sigh. Then all of a sudden his head starts bleeding and I yelp surprised as I watch it soak down the sheets._

 _I try to stretch out and put my hand on his wound but I can't-it's like we're miles away and no matter how hard I try I can never reach him. He tries to tell me something, but the only thing that escapes his mouth are painful grunts, then he closes his eyes, swallows hard and sighs tiredly one last time. I keep yelling and trying to get to him, but I can't change the fact that he's not moving._

"Stefan!" I wake up abruptly and rise up from the pillows until I feel someone's hand on my chest, pushing me back down. I see Bonnie's face staring at me intensely as she sits on the bed next to me

"Shh, Damon it's fine, it's all good" she assures me and I lean back on the pillows tiredly as I take deep breaths. I turn around to see Stefan sleeping peacefully next to me, covered with a blanket, his head bandaged, just like in my dream, but his face is as white as snow and I swallow hard

"What's the time?" I ask with my hoarse voice, hoping that I wouldn't wake him.

"It's about noon now" Bonnie explains patiently as she eyes me carefully and keeps pushing me down or fixing my blanket "Damon, lie back, you need more sleep."

"Noon?" I ignore her words completely "That means…we had to go to the mines...now we're fired" that's the first thing that comes to my mind, I'm scared, we lost our jobs how am I going to raise a baby now, how is Stefan going to get better? I see her shaking her head as she starts explaining

"No, it's fine, two of your people are going in instead of you today. They took your cards and will check in on your behalf" I raise my eyebrows confused, how was this even possible, why would they risk anything just for the two of us "Turns out one of the guards is on your side so he'll cover things up in case someone has any doubts, but we found out that all the bosses are not in town today so it's all good. And tomorrow is Sunday so you'll have your time to rest."

"I…I can't believe…how?" I run my fingers through my messy hair as I try to rise up more and she helps me as she puts another pillow behind my back

"That's nothing Damon" she speaks silently, so that we wouldn't wake my brother, though I doubted it, he looked so pale and broken, he needed the rest "You've got no idea how much everyone did. They donated blood for you two" she nods to Stefan, who surely must've lost a lot

"They brought food and clothes for you guys. Caroline Forbes even gave me baby clothes." she seemed happy from this fact, but I didn't like people pitying me so I just grunted and looked away uncomfortably-sure, it was nice of them to help, but it seemed like we're too poor and we couldn't even afford decent clothes. I mean yes, most of the workers were also in our situation if not worse and them doing this was a wonderful gesture but it also made me feel guilty and pitied and I hated it.

"They shouldn't have done this, I can provide for my child!" I say through teeth and the smile disappears from her face

"Damon, get over yourself! You've got no idea what you two did to these people." I raise my eyebrow confused as to what she means "You gave them hope' she smiles warmly now and I open my mouth in surprise a bit "They were all so proud of you and they hated that Elijah douche with burning passion for hurting you. They consider you the leaders of their rebellion and they won't stop asking me what's going to happen now." her words really surprise me.

I thought that this protest was a total failure and now she's telling me that we've actually united people and made them want to fight?

"The guys want to talk to you two as soon as you get back on your feet." she furrows her eyebrows at the last sentence and I stretch out to grab her hand with my healthy one

"Bon, it's going to be okay" I promise her, even though I realize, that I did this last time as well and things fucked up

"I don't like this, Damon. You were beaten almost to death yesterday, what's going to happen next, huh?" she asks but I don't get to answer, because I feel my brother stirring next to me. He lets out a loud grunt and she hurries to his side, while I push myself to him and put my hand over his chest.

"Damon?" he asks as he opens his swollen eyes and sees my terrified expression and my battered face staring down at him worriedly

"It's okay buddy, we're here" I say as I squeeze his shoulder gently. It kind of hurts me to be in this position, but I wanted to make sure he's okay. Bonnie sits on his other side and smiles at him, he tries to smile back, but fails in it "You're going to be fine" I say even though I might be lying to him

"My head…is killing me" he sates with a grunt as he tries to move up a bit, but just like with me, Bonnie pushes him down "We are…home" he concludes as he looks around us and I nod

"The guys brought you here" Bonnie explains and he smiles "Everyone keeps telling the story of you pissing Elijah off"

"Well…I did something right after all" he smiles with his eyes closed for a moment, before he tenses again and tries to swallow down his pain "Dam, are you okay?" he asks as he looks up at me after the pain is gone

"Yes, I'm fine" I assure him, even though I feel like hell right now and Bonnie notices it because she keeps throwing angry glances at me

"You hand?" he mumbles as he stares down at my wrapped up hand and I shrug, patting him gently on the arm "Dammit" he curses

"It's okay" even though it's not really okay, I don't know what I'm going to do from now on, how I'm supposed to go to work with this and both Bonnie and I knew that we had to show up on Monday, they couldn't keep covering for us.

"I'll go get you two something to eat" Bonnie notices that I want to be with Stefan for a bit and I thank her with a smile "Gilbert will pass by to check on you later in the afternoon."

"Thanks, Bonnie" my brother lets out with a painful smile on his face and we watch her leave the room, closing the door behind her, for which I'm grateful.

I turn to Stefan and despite the fact that I really want him to rest, I help him move up a bit and throw my arm over him, pulling him closer, so I can keep a close eye on him. His head must be killing him because he keeps touching his bandage and trying to touch his wound as if that will make him feel better and I have to scold him and remove it every damn time. Eventually I keep his hands down and tell him that the workers have found a way to cover for us today.

"What are we going to do now?" he asks after it and I raise my eyebrow

"What do you mean, brother?"

"Oh, come on, don't pretend like you've not been thinking about this ever since you woke up. We have to do something. Obviously peaceful protesting won't do shit to change things so we have to-"

"Stefan, what the hell! You're not doing anything anymore, you almost got yourself killed!" I slightly raise my voice, because I don't want Bonnie to hear us "We can't….I'm not going to risk it anymore."

"So what?" he looks at me confused "We'll just hide in our house and continue working with our mouths shut? Damon, we started this! There are people out there who rely on us, don't you see this? Did you not notice their looks when they brought us back in front of them?"

"They were terrified, brother."

"But they were also angry!" he states with certainty in his voice "And that means they're willing to keep fighting for their rights. You knows this better than anyone-our salaries suck, we should receive more money for the work we do, our working conditions are awful, we risk our lives every day that we go there, so honestly, protesting is way more safe than getting in that elevator and going underground admit it."

"I know this" I sigh as I look down at him and grips his shoulder "It's not even about me anymore, it's you, Stefan." he looks up and furrows his eyebrows "I have to keep you safe. It's the promise I gave mother before she died and I have to keep it." he knew this well enough, but he couldn't understand it.

"You can't always keep me safe, brother" he responds and moves away from me, lying on his pillow and I watch him put his arm over his eyes, refusing to face me right now. He sighs tiredly before he speaks again "That's the thing. But you can change your child's future."

"Why are you so bent on continuing this, Stefan?" I ask him after we spent five minutes in complete silence and I lose myself in thoughts, realizing that he's right. I could make my child's life better if I keep fighting for this. It's true that our salaries sucked and we risked out lives every day, for our labor we should receive enough to live decently at least, but instead we didn't have enough beds or clothes or food for that matter and that made me mad once again.

"Because if I don't then our father's death means nothing" he responds silently as he turns his back to me and pulls the blanket up his shoulders to keep himself warm.

I sigh as I run my hand through my messy hair.

"Okay" I sigh, it's not like he really had to convince me. He was right-I've been thinking about what we could do from the moment I regained my consciousness-I wasn't ready to give up.

Probably for the exact same reason he has just mention-our father died while working underground, the conditions then were the same as they are now, probably even worse. People kept dying and leaving their families behind, kids kept growing without fathers and I sure as hell didn't want mine to live in poverty and fatherless.

"I'll gather Ric and Tom tomorrow and we'll talk about what we can do, but here's the deal" he turns a bit to me, his tired eyes staring in mine make it hard for me to breathe "You stay out of it."

"Damon, you can't-"

"You stay out of it, Stefan!" I raise my voice sternly and we stare at each other for a moment, before he turns back to his side, angry at me for doing this to him.

 **Stefan's POV**

I'm standing in our kitchen, leaning on the plot, listening carefully to my brother, Tom and Ric, who were discussing intensely on the table what they should do from now on.

I couldn't keep my eyes away from the orange bandanas that Ric has brought to show us-they were symbolizing the fire that people died in a few weeks back and had a flame with a fist coming out of it printed on them.

I grabbed one in my hand and stared in it, before finally fisting it and getting up on the counter-they haven't even noticed that I've approached the table-they were in a heated discussion and I was about to interrupt them when they realized that their ideas sucked.

I looked at my brother-he seemed far better than two days ago when they've brought us home, though his hand was really crushed and I knew it hurt him a lot because last night while I was sleeping here in the kitchen, he came to the drawer to get his bourbon out and take a few sips to kill the pain.

I had no idea how we'll go to work tomorrow-we were still very sore and he couldn't pick up any kind of tool with this hand. My head was still wrapped up in this big bandage that made it feel heavy and I staggered a lot when I walked because it hurt, but as a whole I was better and I was trying to keep up my façade in front of him, because I knew he worried a lot.

I heard him talking to Bonnie the other night when they thought I was sleeping and I almost cried when he said how proud he was of me when I stood up to Elijah and said those things.

I honestly don't believe I've done anything that significant, I was just speaking out my mind, but I suppose people really got caught up in the moment. In the past two days since we were trying to recover, almost every worker passed by our small house to express their gratitude or bring something to us. I knew Damon hated the fact that they were pitying us, but we really had nothing to eat these days and Bonnie had to keep up her strength. I was concerned about her.

I was sure that Damon and I would manage, we always did, we were tough, not that she wasn't, she was stronger than us when it comes to many things, but she was carrying a child and she was so small and slim and I knew she's not eating enough, so whenever we had dinner, I would finish half my plate and leave the rest for them. I don't know if they realized what I was doing or if they just believed I'm not that hungry, but my brother liked to scold me.

"That won't work, Damon" Ric raised his voice slightly annoyed and I was brought back to reality "They've hired more guards since the last protest, they won't crush us, but they'll make us get in the elevators and go back to work."

"You guys need to look at the bigger picture here" I finally intervened and they all immediately turned their heads to me. I slowly came off the counter, still holding the orange bandana in my hand and stared for a moment at the badges he has brought-they were the same, orange with the flame and the first.

"What do you mean, brother?" Damon asks, peaking up his eyebrow

"You don't need to protest in the mine yard" I explain simply "Then it will be easier for them to surround you and catch you, especially if they call the police as well. They'll cover it all up in less than two hours and fire half of you." Ric grunted and stared down at his intertwined hands, fiddling nervously with his fingers, realizing that I'm right "What you need to do is get out the damn mine and go downtown."

"You mean protest on the streets?" Tom asks and his face lits up at my idea, I can see he's already supporting it.

He was my age, we were both very close and knew each other since high school. Together, we talked to the younger workers, convinced them to stick to the plan since there were some idiots out there who were unpredictable. He was smart and very hard working-I liked him a lot, especially now when he was supporting my ideas

"Yes" I stretch my hands and see my brother and Ric looking at me curiously. I pull the chair and sit down next to them as I feel a bit dizzy again and I don't know Damon to notice this

"We all know that sitting there peacefully won't do us any good, it's better if we finally raise our voices and get down on the streets. We can make posters and we will need more of these" I nod at the badges

"And that will work?" Ric asks not entirely certain, that this is a good idea

"You are missing one big fact here" I smile at them knowingly "Who owns the sewing factory in town?" I ask them

"The Mikaelson's do" Tom responds right away, I think he sees where I'm going here

"And the construction company downtown?" they all lean back on their chairs and sigh "What about Kent's garages or that small metal factory? They own all of these things and I'm pretty sure the workers there are not happy with their conditions or their salaries."

"So you're saying we talk to them and ask them for help?" Damon says

"You won't have to ask them, brother, they'll join us willingly. The majority of the people in this town are mine workers, we bring them a lot of money, they can't fire us all because there won't be enough people qualified for the job. The rest of them are silent and obeying because they are minorities, they are not enough to make a difference, but if they join a greater force, then they'll have hope for making a change in their workplaces as well."

"When on earth did you get so smart, kiddo?" Damon laughs out happily as he finally gets my idea. I can see Ric agrees with him as well, he's nodding his head and rubbing his stubble, Tom is as usually glowing, his goofy smile makes me laugh as well

"But we're going to need some time to prepare, maybe a week or so and inform the others too." we all nod and they keep discussing things while I listen to them carefully and give them other ideas here and there.

My brother shuts up when we hear the front door open and soon Bonnie joins us in the kitchen. He swallows hard at the sight of her, I'm pretty sure he hasn't told her anything about this yet and he's up for a big fight with her.

She crosses her hands as soon as she sees the badges on the table and the bandana, which I've wrapped around my wrist, but I hurry to take down when she eyes me angrily. I was honestly more scared of her than any police force.

"Hey, Stefan, you wanna go out for a walk?" Tom suggests as Ric stands up and starts excusing himself. Tom approaches me and whispers while nobody's watching "We have to talk"

"Okay"I respond and look out for my jacket, trying to get away from here as fast as I can.

"Stefan, where the fuck do you think you're going?" my brother raises his voice just when I put my jacket on, Tom is already waiting for me outside "You're still sick, you need to rest."

"I'm fine, I could use the walk, brother" I oppose him as I find my shoes and put them on as fast as I can "I'll be careful" I promise him and he gives me a sad look.

He wanted me to be here for when Bonnie starts scolding him, but I was slipping away and he hated it. I didn't want to be in the middle of this, though. Bonnie had a problem with him participating and he didn't even want me to be there for the future protests-I was kind of stuck, because I was trying to find a way to go without him finding out-I wouldn't leave him behind no matter what he says. I'm old enough to make my own decisions.

"Come on, buddy!" Tom yells at me from the porch and I slam the door behind me.

I decide to take it slowly, because my head still hurts a lot and he figures just as much as he sees me stagger down the stairs. He puts his hand on my shoulder and I smile gratefully as we start walking down the street and to our favorite pub.

We talk about random stuff on the way there and I don't pressure him to tell me what's on his mind right away-Tom liked to take his time, so instead we discuss his wife and their soon-to-be born kid. He got married to his high school sweetheart Beth and I was the best man on their wedding.

We settle down on the darkest table in the corner of this doomed place and I listen to him with a smile on my face while he explains how Beth keeps waking in the middle of the night and asks him to go buy her ice cream or donuts or whatever else she craved at that moment and he was always like, "Honey, it's after midnight, where am I going to find these things?"

We laugh out loud as we take a sip of our beer and he clears his throat, which is how I know he's about to get to the subject.

"So, I talked to the other workers, the younger ones, you know?" I nod patiently listening to him "And they want you to lead us if there is another protest."

"You know that my brother wants me to stay out of it this time, Tom" I sigh as I grip my glass and stare down at the beer

"I do, but I also know you're not going to do what he says anyway so…" he smiles at me and I nod, agreeing with his statement, he knew me far too well. We've been friends since diapers. "Look, we agree with the elders and all that and we respect them, but we trust you, because you understand us. They don't really listen to what we have to say and they barely take under consideration our suggestions." he continues explaining and I take a good sip from my beer. I knew he was right. I mean, I loved my brother and Ric and all of them, but they weren't really considering our point of view. "They listen to you, though."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration, Tom" I sigh, not entirely convinced he's right. Yes, they listened to me when they had no other option.

"Are you kidding me? You just came up with this whole thing for next week, without you they would've had nothing or would've done something to get us into a bigger mess.

"To be honest, what is about to happen, is going to make things worse. Once we disturb the public peace and the entire society of this doomed town joins us, they'll use force, Tom-truncheons, dogs, tear-gas, probably even guns."

"That's why we need you" Tom continues stubbornly and to be honest I'm not doing anything to stop him. I want to participate in this protest, I was going to whether Damon wanted me or not, but I wasn't sure how much of a leader to this guys I was.

"Why I need you too, Stefan. You know how some of them can get violent, I just want to keep them safe and you can help me do this. I'm afraid that they can provoke the wrong people just because they're young and stupid."

"And we're not?" I raise my eyebrow

"You're definitely not stupid, Stefan. You're wise and you look at things objectively." I sigh as I run my hand through my messy hair and touch the bandage which is already annoying me as hell and I want to just take it off, but if I do I'll probably start bleeding

"Look, we'll be with the others, we don't want to separate or anything, but we'll be at the back of these stuff, probably not even at the same street, so your brother won't even know about you being there until later. I'll feel safe only if you're with us." he says and waits patiently for my response. I take a few minutes, not to decide about what I'll say, I already know my answer, but to think over his words and what they meant to me. It was nice that people trusted me, but that also brought great responsibility.

"Okay" I nod and I feel him relaxing next to me" I'll be with you guys."

"I knew you wouldn't leave us" he smiles as he puts his hand on my shoulder and pulls me in for a hug. I pat his back and chuckle in his embrace.

He's right-I couldn't leave them, they were my brothers. Damon led his people-the older and wiser ones, but he couldn't keep any of the other safe. He wasn't even taking under consideration the fact that a bunch of them were seventeen year olds who dropped out of school-they were young and angry, they also had no idea how to protect themselves.

"Another round for me and my buddy here!" he yells at the waitress and I chuckle. I wasn't supposed to drink too much, I had to take pills tomorrow, but anyway, I was hoping it will be out of my system by then "Listen, we have to talk about something else too."

"Okay, I'm listening" I say as I finish my beer and the waitress brings the new glass. We wait for her to leave before he speaks up again

"I think we should call the National Miners Union, they might be able to help us if things get too bad."

"They are bureaucrats, Tom" I sigh tiredly "They won't do shit for us. Telling them or not, they'll just throw our complaint in some trash and forget that we ever sent it. You remember what happened in Wyoming last year-they turned their heads in the other direction."

"Yes, but we're different-we're actually about to do something big here, Stefan, they won't just let it pass, this can go on a national level, other cities might protest too, especially in our area."

"Let's just try to fix what we can here, Tom, what do you say?" he seemed too eager, he sometimes forget that things just don't magically happen like this. It's true, all you needed was someone to inspire you and I had no problem with helping other people from different cities if I could, but for now we had to try and change our own situation

"You can send them a letter if you want, me and Damon will sign it as well, but I doubt it will do anything."

"I would take anyone I could against the MIkaelsons."

"You're right" I agreed with him, I just didn't believe the state gave a shit about some coal miners who were up against one of the most powerful families in the country, but I didn't want to kill his enthusiasm so I squeezed his shoulder and gave him a sad smile.

"So, how's that thick head of yours?" he asks as he looks up at my bandage "Everything alright?"

"Gilbert says I will be fine" I reassure him and he sighs relieved, I knew he cared about me and I appreciated his concern, but I couldn't help but think that maybe he was so relieved because he wouldn't have to deal with all the guys on his own and I didn't blame him for it.

"I heard Elena came to your house as well" he points out and I clear my throat uncomfortably. Elena and I had something like a fling back in high school.

It was actually the summer between junior and senior year. She had a boyfriend with whom she has supposedly broke up and things between us just happened-it was kind of the best two months in my life until Matt came back and she decided to go back to him.

Why not? He was rich and very smart, every girl in the school wanted to be with him. She broke my damn heart and I still loved her to this day despite everything that happened. I heard he proposed to her after senior year, but then again this fall things got messier between them and I had no idea if they're still dating or not at all.

When I regained my consciousness the other day and saw her taking care of my brother, I swallowed hard at the sight of her beautiful face and decided that I was probably dreaming, but when her father called her to come help him patch my head, I realized that it was her indeed and when she touched my forehead with her skinny hands, I pushed back as if afraid that she'll dig back that hole into my heart. I wasn't thinking straight, that's for sure, but then I relaxed and let her take care of me. I can still feel the gentle way she touched my face and took care of my bruises, but we barely spoke.

"Don't go down there, Tom" I ask him with a astern voice and he nods, realizing that I'm not up for having this conversation now.

We talked some more and drank another beer and because I wanted him to go home to his wife sober, I urged him to leave, even though I knew he needed his friend. I was getting kind of tired too, my head still hurt a lot and it took me half an hour to get to our house.

When I got inside, I saw my brother was laying a blanket on the floor next to the couch where I slept and tossed one of the pillows next to it in an angry matter.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked confused and he turned to me, his face red and I can see how angry he actually is when he fists the blanket in his hand

"Nothing" he grunts and turns back around. I roll my eyes as I realize what's going on here.

"Did you and Bonnie get into a fight again?" I sigh as I approach him slowly, supporting myself on every possible furniture on the way there, but the only response that I get out of him is a silent scoff "Damon, you can't sleep on the damn floor you're hurt!" I say out loud angry at their childish behavior.

They really drove me insane sometimes.

"I know what I'm doing, Stefan" he responds as he starts searching for his sweater-he's freezing and he can't sleep down there-it was so damn cold in this room as it is.

I sigh tiredly as I head to their bedroom and he stops doing what he's doing, staring at me confused. I open the bedroom and find Bonnie sitting on their bed folding clothes in a very angry manner.

"Bonnie, come with me!" I urge her and she looks at me surprised "Come on!" I say and she shakes her head stubbornly, knowing well enough what I'm going to do

"Bonnie Bennett, please, come with me to the kitchen!" I try again "You know my brother is an idiot, please don't become one too-two of you gets too much for me." she huffs annoyed and crosses her arms on her chest like a little girl, her nice red shirt is crumpled and her hair is messy and she is honestly adorable when she's pissed-she looks like a five year old mad girl who didn't get ice cream after dinner even though they promised her.

I don't know if it's the puppy face that I give her or the fact that I really look pathetic right now with this big bandage on my head and my messed up face, but she follows me and we end up back in the kitchen where my brother is still fighting with trying to make this bed on the floor.

"Okay, you two wanna tell me what it is that you're pouting about right now?" I stand between them and grab my brother's hand, shoving the blanket off of him and pushing him to me.

They avoid each other's stares and the only thing you could hear coming out of their mouths was grunts and huffs as if they were about to start fighting any minute now

"He's going to risk his life for this stupid thing again, even though I told him I don't want him getting involved in it anymore!" Bonnie finally spills the truth, not that I didn't know that it will have something to do with the protest

"It's not stupid!" he lets through teeth and stretches his hands tiredly at me as if I'm some referee who's going to decide who's wrong and who's right which is probably what will happen eventually "These people count on me!"

"Two days ago, you were brought home barely breathing and now you want to get your ass kicked again, really Damon! I don't understand this, do you want to die so damn much and leave me alone here!"

"Bonnie, I am not going to die!" at this point I'm already rubbing my forehead tiredly, but they're so damn fast that I can't even interrupt them

"You HAVE THREE BROKEN RIBS AND YOUR HAND IS SMASHED ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" she yells out and just as he's about to open his mouth I raise my hands and stand between them

"Okay, okay, how about we all calm down here!" I start and they both shut up staring in all possible directions

"I'm not going to" Bonnie starts again but I huff

"No, no! Stop! Do you realize that you're acting like kids right now?" I ask them and they looked down at their feet suddenly ashamed

"Damon, you can't sleep on the damn floor, your ass will freeze and you'll be sick tomorrow morning and you and I both know that's the last thing you want to happen cause we can't afford paying for more medications that we're already taking, because we got our asses beaten!" I watch my brother scratch the back of his neck like a little boy who's just done something wrong and is trying to come up with a decent answer to explain his actions

"Bonnie" I sigh as I turn to her "I know he's an ass okay?" I tell her and she nods in understanding while my brother huffs at me disagreeing, but I jab him in the ribs and he doesn't dare speak up, because he knows I am about to convince his fiancé to let him go back to bed with her

"I know this is all too much for you and that you're scared and extremely angry right now, I understand…okay, I really do. We bring you so much headache, but we can't disappoint these people. They rely on us, they want us to help them so desperately and there's no one out there who's so stubbornly brave and determined as my brother." Damon relaxes behind me while Bonnie slightly furrows her eyebrows. I know she sees my point but she still doesn't like what's going on

"Just look how much they helped when we got beaten up" I nod at the clothes on the chairs that they've brought "They got our backs, so don't worry, he'll be fine. He's not alone."

She looks at us for a moment and her and Damon's look finally meet. I watch her sigh tiredly and let her hands fall on her sides, which is how I know she's no longer that mad.

"Okay" she says and I smile as I approach her and give her a tight hug. She hugs me back but my brother is still somewhere behind us, refusing to swallow his damn pride. I huff out annoyed as I let her go and push her a bit to him, eyeing him wearily.

"Damon, go kiss your fiancé" I scold him and he grunts annoyed like a five year old "Stop snorting like a damn horse, go hug her, you idiot!" I urge him as I slap his shoulder and he finally approaches her and leans down to kiss her on the forehead. I know they're both still angry but at least for now things are better.

"Now go to your damn bedroom and let me sleep." I urge him as I toss the blanket at him and he turns around heading to their room, cursing under his nose "I can hear you!" I let out loud and Bonnie waits till he gets inside to turn to me.

I sit on the couch tiredly and I think that she's about to leave and join him in there, but instead I feel her hand on my shoulder and I look up.

"Hey, you okay, kiddo?" she asks and I nod with a smile "Did anyone change your bandage today?" she asks as she carefully touches the big bulge on my head and I shake my head

"No, Damon's been too busy." I explain and she huffs as she goes to the table to get fresh gauzes and a bandage, as well as some cotton swab and the peroxide.

"I'll give him busy!" she warns and I chuckle at their stubbornness as she starts unwrapping the bandage and I squeeze my eyes from the thumping pain in my head

"I swear if this child is as stubborn as you two are" I swallow hard when she removes the old gauze and the pain consume me for a moment "I'm going insane." she smiles as she starts cleaning it and I stare at the budge on her stomach thinking how this baby is growing more with every passing day.

When she presses the cotton swab I wince, but she steadies my head and pulls me closer to her chest. It feels good and it reminds me of how mother used to take care of me and Damon when we bruised our knees.

"Almost done, hold on" she asks of me and I bite my lip as I feel her hand gently cleaning the place. When she puts it down on the table I see there's some blood and I clear my throat "It's still oozing, we have to make Gilbert take a look at it" she announces and I shake my head, I didn't want any more doctors, I knew I would be fine.

"You're going to be a great mother, Bon" I say and I feel her smile even though I can't see her face now. She's already wrapping the new bandage, but the place stings a bit.

"I hope you're right" she sighs and I feel how tired she actually is.

"He's going to be one lucky boy" I comment and she stops wrapping the bandage for a moment

"Are you kidding me! You think it's going to be a boy too!" she exclaims annoyed and I smile

"Sorry" I apologize and she rubs my shoulder when she finishes wrapping this thing up. She smiles at me and pushes me down to the pillow, covering me up with the blanket and leaning down to give me a motherly kiss on the forehead.

"You got pretty messed up, didn't you, kiddo?" she says as she fixes my sandy hair and smiles down at me. I can tell she feels too bad "Does it hurt too much, huh?"

"I'm fine, Bon" I promise her and she shakes her head

"Damon and I might be stubborn, but you're silently going through everything that life throws at you and that terrifies me sometimes. You have to take care of yourself, Stefan."

"I will" I promise her as I squeeze her hand for a moment and watch her stand up and turn off the lights. I felt bad for not telling anyone that I was going to participate in the protest as well.

Damon was going to kill me when he finds out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Damon's POV**

Preparations take us about two weeks, way more than we initially expected, but I don't mind us taking our time as long as everything was how it should be.

Things at the mines are very tense, Elijah keeps coming around every day when we leave work and I see him talking to one of the guards, but we're all trying to seem obeying and eager to work, even though we're boiling up with anger from the inside.

He lets the guards down to check on our work and because of my screwed up hand I get much scolding, they even cut off money from my salary. Because of this, Stefan had to work extra hours, even though the wound on his head hasn't completely healed and he was still staggering a bit here and there.

I knew that he would soon be better, but with all that extra work he's doing, he's been actually looking like a ghost and the minute he comes home, he crashes on the couch and refuses to get up and even eat-he falls asleep right away and I feel so damn guilty about it all, that I don't know what to do to help him.

All of this just pisses me off more and I actually couldn't wait for this day to come, so I can get some kind of pay back, though Stefan kept reminding me that this isn't about us, that I have to keep looking at the bigger picture-I agreed with him, I just had the urge to bang my fists into a wall and let it all out somewhere. If it wasn't for Stefan to keep me sane and to shove the bottle of bourbon off my hands, I would've been an enormous mess, but I had to find a way to drown the guilt inside me.

At least, I was glad that I was getting him out of this thing-there's no way he could participate in the protest now as he was taking those extra hours and had to work and for once, I was extremely happy about it. It's ridiculous how I thought that he would be more safe underground than with me on the streets.

"Damon" I hear Ric's voice behind me "It's time" he announces and I smile nodding.

I look at all the people surround me-there were coal miners, seamstresses, mechanics, workers in other factories around town and we were all united today, trying to make a difference.

Every factory had their leader, someone to protect and represent their people and they've all gathered around me, but Ric kept saying that they all look up to me and let me make the important decisions.

I felt the weight on my shoulders suffocating me a bunch of times in the last few nights-I couldn't sleep at all. That, and Stefan's nightmares were back, he was barely getting any rest once midnight passed-I had to get up and go to him almost every time, but he would push me away and beg me to go back to Bonnie-he didn't want me to stay awake because of him and I felt so bad that he wasn't letting me help him. There were moments when I stayed with him despite the fact that he was trying to make me go and I would sit on the stupid narrow couch with him and pull him to my chest, waiting for him to fall asleep, just like when he was a kid.

I smiled at the memory of my brother as a sad, tortured from these nightmares child and looked up at all these people with orange badges on their jackets, posters in hand, light in their eyes, eagerness and impatience consuming their whole human being-this wasn't just about my kid, it was also about Stefan. I had to try to change his future too, to make it better.

Ric gave me a slight nod and I took a deep breath, raising my arms in the air, begging them to all pay attention to me. I wasn't going to give any speeches, I wasn't that good at this and honestly, there was no need to do that-I just had to lead them, to show them the way.

 **Stefan's POV**

I finally arrive at the street where the youngest workers from the mine have gathered, all waiting for me to come and lead them to the main street where the bigger protest was happening. Not everyone weas gathering at the same place, or so I've heard from my brother-the plan was for the different workers to come out of the five main streets and for us all to end up in the big town's square. I think that the police will try to stop us and they'll probably be pretty extreme, but I wasn't afraid-I have mostly healed by now and I was actually more concerned for these guys who were already yelling and cheering up as I approached them.

My brother thought that I'll be working right now and I was glad that he had no idea I've changed my shifts and come here-I know that later he'll scold me a lot, but it was worth it. He couldn't stop me anymore, I wasn't a child, I could take care of myself.

"Stefan!" Tom yells my name and pulls me in for a hug, patting my back pretty hard because he's nervous and tense and I give him a light smile, reassuring him it's going to be fine. "You're here."

"Of course I'm here, where else would I be!" I slap his shoulder and look at all of the bright young already tired of this life people, who're looking at me, waiting for me to encourage them.

"Come on, step up here, you have to talk to them!" Tom says as he turns up a bucket, that came from somewhere and urges me to get on it so everyone can see me. I shake my head and raise my arms

"Everyone, gather around me!" I yell and they start shifting with uncertainty "Come on, gather around" I beg them again and they start moving up, surrounding me from both sides. Tom is eyeing me confused but waits for me patiently nonetheless.

Once they all stop walking and talking, I speak up.

"I am not going to step on this bucket and appear to be someone who's better than you, guys" I explain and I see the smiles on their faces right away "Because I am not and doing this means I'm no different than those who force us to work for minimum wage" they cheer me and get enthusiastic all of a sudden, so I have to raise my hands in order to calm them down

"I know the name of every single one of you" I say as I approach some of them and eyes them, they smile at me "I know, who of you have kids, wives, sick parents at home." I sigh as I turn around "I know how much pain you all go through every day, I know how hard it is and how much it hurts. You've all heard the labels that they put on us-we're losers, uneducated bastards, who are only good for working underground, we're silent and obeying, we're stupid, we are weak! That's what they call us and that's how they use us-today we change this. We are no longer a lost generation that no one will remember!" I raise my voice and with it they raise their fists in the air.

Tom passes me one of the orange bandanas and I wrap it around my wrist tightly. I knew the elders put it up on their arms or their heads, but we tied it on our wrists.

"And yet I want you to remember, that today is not only about us" they are so silent, it feels like they're not even breathing "We all have lost someone in these mines or if we haven't, we're living in the constant fear that we could be next. Today, we raise our voices for those who died and for those who are to come after us." they all yell out loud and gather closer to me, patting me on the shoulder and smiling even.

I think how soon they'll go back to being serious, terrified even and I feel slightly guilty for doing this to them, but someone had to lift their spirits and I guess that someone was me. I wasn't really a big fan on crowds and talking in front of them, I wasn't trying to become famous or important-that was wrong, I knew it in my heart, but I also realized that Tom was right-they needed someone to lead them and no one else was up for the job, no one else used the rights words either. I wasn't sure I did, but at least I seemed to be giving them hope.

Hope is a tricky thing, though, it's dangerous and I was afraid that they might be following me today, but hate me tomorrow and that's not the worst thing-it was that I had to live with their broken dreams and awful realities on my shoulders.

After we're all set and done, ready to go, I turn around and with Tom by my side, I start leading them to the square, hoping that we don't end up being blocked up by officers on the way there and praying that Damon was fine right now.

 **Damon's POV**

We don't even make it to the town's square.

At first everything's fine, we all walk and the rest of the workers join us, singing at first, then yelling for justice and angry at the fact that nobody wants to hear us. I'm trying to keep them together, at least my people, and I forbid them to be violent and do something stupid.

That's until we make a big turn towards the main street and we end up being blocked by the police forces and I gasp surprised.

There are so many of them, I never expected it to be that bad, someone must've told them what we're up to and that it's not only us protesting. The minute I realize how serious the situation is-they are fully armed, dogs by their sides, I'm sure they have tear gas too and they're all looking at us with this pure hatred as if they were so much better than us-I make everyone stop and try to calm them down, but before I can do anything someone from the back rows throws a bottle at them and others follow, throwing rocks. I try to stop them, I yell, I send Ric at the back to make them calm down, but he doesn't even make it down there, because everyone start moving and yelling and of course, soon I'm being pushed to the officers by this sea of angry people, who only want to fight for what's rightfully theirs.

As I felt them pushing them forwards, I realized that anger is a good thing, but you can never really contain it and now we were going to get in trouble for it.

It's not that I really expected this to go peacefully, I knew there would be a collision eventually, that we'll fight with them, I was just hoping that I can minimize the casualties.

I don't know who attacks who first-I think it's us, but I can't be sure because everything's happening so damn fast. They let the dogs out at us and start hitting us with their truncheons or pushing us back with their big shields, while we keep pushing forwards and we end up mostly on the street. I start yelling at people to get back, though there's no need to-some of them are already trying to run away, some of us scatter and some start getting back, even though at first we were so angry that we were hitting them and trying to fight them. The more time passes, the more they advance and the more we pull back.

Just like a few weeks back, I feel someone hitting me at the back of my head and pushing me to the ground.

I don't lose consciousness like last time but I feel them pressing my head to the ground and trying to cuff me. I fight them, I don't want to give up, but there's really not much point to it, he's pressing me hard and his knee is against my neck.

I grunt and yell and try to fight him until I realize that Ric is being cuffed right next to me. That makes me really angry, I wanted him to get out of this, at least him, so he can take care of everyone else and tell them to run and get back to their houses, it's not like they're not doing it anyway, but I would've felt better if he was not currently being arrested.

"Get down, you piece of shit!" the officer yells in my ear as I try to move again and this time he hit my head in the ground harder, I feel the pain consume me for a moment and the blood dripping down my face-I think I bruised my right side, but that was nothing compared to what happened in Elijah's office. At least Stefan wasn't here, that's all that calms me right now. If he was free he would be able to get me out of jail soon, or so I hoped.

They lift me up and soon the other officer gets Ric on his feet as well and they start pushing us to this big police van where I can recognize some of the other workers sitting in there already and I eye Ric wearily, wondering what the hell are we going to do now.

The street is no longer full of people, there is a lot of junk on the ground and I can hear the dogs howling in the distance-I pray that nobody is hurt that bad, that it's just bruises and everyone are alive and safe, though I did hear some gun shots while they were cuffing me.

When he pushes me inside the van, I see many police cars and other people being arrested, but as a whole it feels like most of our people have managed to disappear.

Once me and Ric settle down, I realize that the rest of the guys in the van are not just regular people-they were those closest me and Ric, guys, who have been helping us organize this thing and as I look around and they stare down at their shoes uncomfortably, I realize that they've picked us up on purpose. Of course, there were other people that they have arrested without really caring who they were and what they're doing, but thee fifteen guys in here-they were on the front rows with me, they've helped me organize everything, they agreed to my ideas and supported me, they talked to the workers in the other factories, they were the inner circle and of course, for a reason, they have arrested them.

I don't know what to tell them, but I feel awful on the way to the station. I am guilty of them being away from their families tonight, it's my fault their kids will go to bed without their fathers reading them a fairytale or telling them some story, I'm the reason why they won't kiss their women and tell them how much they love them.

I feel like the air inside it's going to suffocate me and Ric realizes that something's wrong with me, because he gives me a sympathetic look, but that's not going to change anything at all and it can't make things better-from now on, I couldn't protect them and I had no idea what's going to happen to us. They might decide to keep us in there for as long as they want to and refuse to let us go even if we could pay our bails. I knew how vengeful the Mikaelson's could be and we were surely playing with fire.

The problem is, that when I realized this, it was already too late. I should've never mislead these people, I should've never agreed to keeping up with the protests.

They take us off the van and practically drag us inside. Some of the guys try to pull up a fight including Ric, but I shush them down and tell them to stay put, because the only thing they'll get is a kick in the stomach or a hit with the truncheon on the head.

They push us all in this big cell with two benches and lock us up. The moment they do, they boys start yelling and gripping the bars, asking for them to release us, which of course won't happen.

"There's no point in this, you're wasting your breath!" I tell them and pull them back because the guards outside our cell are already rising their truncheons and hitting their hand so they would remove away from the bars

"Don't tell me what to do, Salvatore!" John, one of Ric's closest friends pushes me back and I raise my hands defensively "You're the reason we're all here."

"Shut up, John, you knew what you were doing the moment you signed up for this!" Ric grabs his shoulder and pulls him away from me, everyone in the cell are staring at us and I feel their looks burning up holes in my chest. I've never been so guilty in my life before.

"You are the one who kept telling me how grateful you are that we're doing this and that we have someone like Damon by our side and now what? The moment it gets messier, you pull back and start bashing on him!"

"Ric, it's fine" I interrupt him and he shakes his head. John pulls back, ashamed of himself and sits on the bench burying his head in his hands

"It's not fine! What are you thinking, John? That he's dying to be here! He has a pregnant wife back home and he still put his ass one the line for you!"

"You're right" he mumbles and looks up at me "I'm sorry, Damon, I didn't mean to." I nod, I can't really speak right now, my throat is so tightened and I feel the guilt makes my chest heavier.

"Let's all try to calm down and not provoke them anymore, okay?" Ric says and we all nod, sitting back on the benches or on the floor.

I press my back to the cold wall and close my eyes, refusing to look at the sadness in their eyes. I had no idea how long they'll keep us here, but hours pass before there's any indication of them even telling us everything.

When we finally hear the main door open and some steps approaching us, we all jump from our places and approach the bars. As soon as I see who they are, my heart sinks a little and I swallow hard.

"Well, well" Klaus Mikaelson followed by his brother and three guards stare at us with big fat smiles on their faces "Are these the bunch of idiots who are trying to change the world? I must say you all look quite pathetic." we all grip the bars and I stay in the middle, still trying to be the leader even when I'm locked, it's like I had to always be there before them, to make sure that they are safely behind my back, but the thing is, they were not and they could never be.

"What do you want?" Ric finally dares to ask while Klaus takes a step towards us and looks at us all as if he's going to laugh in our faces any minute now and he actually does

"The question here is what it is you lot want?" he starts walking up and down, his hands on his back, he's dressed in a leather jacket and dark jeans, in a total contrast to his brother Elijah, who's leaning on the empty cell, opposite of ours, observing this scene patiently in his nice business suit "Are you in some kind of delusion that you are going to make a difference here? Do you actually think that you can provoke us" he nods to his brother "And just get away without any consequences?"

"Fuck you, Mikaleson! We won't play by your rules." Ric yells out loud and Klaus nods to one of the guards who hits his hand with the truncheon and Ric pulls back, falling on his knees. We all surround him as he grunts out from the pain they've caused him and I look up at them, anger burning in my eyes

"Oh, but I think you will." Klaus says patiently while we try to help Ric, whose fingers are most probably broken

"Now, who out of you losers is Damon Salvatore?" he asks and I stand up, slowly approaching the bars again, eyeing the rest of the guys to stay behind me and not come anywhere near as we didn't need another person squirming in pain on the floor

"I am." I say out loud, not hiding my anger and not showing my fear.

"You are the leader of this whole thing, aren't you?" he asks again and I nod sternly, as I grip the bars tightly and he comes closer. We stare at each other for a moment, before he smirks again and turns around nodding to one of the guys

"Bring him." he orders and I watch two of the guards disappear for a moment, wondering what on earth is going on.

Until they come back, carrying a nineteen year old boy in their hands-a boy that I know far too well-it's my brother! They've stripped him off his shirt and were dragging him in the damn hallway-his face was a bit bloody and he seemed bruised here and there, which made me yell.

"Stefan! STEFAN!" he looks up and all I see is the pain in his eyes. He swallows hard as they raise him back up on his feet, it's hard for him to stay put and the minute he sees me, he starts trying to get away from them

"Damon!" he yells as well, but they pull him back, holding his arms tightly and not allowing him to get away "Damon, are you okay?" he asks and I shake my head.

God, why was he even here, how did the catch him? I ask myself and then I notice the orange bandana on his wrist and I furrow my eyebrows. He meets my stern look and looks down ashamed

"I'm sorry" he mumbles, realizing that I know what's going on here, that he has lied to me after he promised that he won't go to the damn protest.

"Let go of my brother!" I yell at Klaus as I realize that right now Stefan being at the protest is the least of my problems. I had to get everyone out of here and I was locked behind bars-now they had him and I had no idea what they could do.

Klaus smiles devilishly again and turns to the guards

"Tie him on the bars" he says and nods to the cell opposite of ours, which is empty. I watch them push Stefan to the bars and raising his hands above his head, cuffing him up

"No! What are you doing? Let GO OF HIM!" I yell again, but he doesn't even flinch, he turns to the guards again and nods at them.

"Hit him!"" he says and the guard raises his truncheon hitting Stefan on his right side. My brother grits his teeth and bites his lips, but tries to stay as calm as he can, which is impossible because they're causing him pain.

"LET GO OF HIM YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I yell as I grip the bars and desperately try to get out of here. I feel someone's hands on my shoulders and I realize that all the guys are up , surrounding me with angry faces

"You provoked me!" Klaus comes back and stares at me, whispering in a hoarse threatening voice "For that you will pay. You will also stop all protests and convince your little insignificant people that working for me is a privilege that they have to welcome with open arms, otherwise I will ruin you and your entire family, I'll strip everyone you love away from you and then I'm going to watch you suffer with a smile on my face." as he talks he keeps raising his voice and when he's done he turns around and nods at the guards again. I watch the two of them hit Stefan on both sides and this time he yells in pain.

"No!" my brother says "Damon, don't!" he says and I look at him "I'm fine… I'm going to be fine. Don't give up, these people rely on you."

"Keep on!" Klaus orders and I watch them taking turns at hitting my brother's torso.

He closes his eyes, trying to undergo the enormous amount of pain they put him through, I see him turning his head right and left as he desperately tries to swallow his yells, but he can't. The more they hit him, the harder it gets for him to pretend that he can take this and I feel my eyes fill with tears. The guys behind me start yelling as well, but they won't do any good-they can't stop this, because it was all about me. I hurt them and Klaus had to hurt me back by using my brother.

"STOP THIS!" I yell at Klaus "PLEASE STOP THIS! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!" I shake the bars with my hand as I see the blood coming out of Stefan's mouth-they began hitting his face as well.

"Stop the protests! Calm your people down and I might let your brother live!" Klaus raises his voice again, pushing me up against the wall

"NO, Damon, don't do it!" Stefan yells behind him "That's what he wants! I can take-" he's interrupted by another hit and he coughs out, spitting blood on the floor

"Brother, don't!" he continues after he takes a deep breathe, but I can't watch him like this, it hurts too much. I swore that I will always protect him and right now I was listening to them cracking his bones-I had no idea how he was still conscious, they were beating the hell out of him and I could already see the bruises and the cuts all over his chest and on both his sides-they were killing him!

"I'll do whatever you want, just let him go!" I grunt through teeth and Klaus smiles satisfied with the result. The guys behind me don't protest when they hear my words. I know they don't like them, but they were all yelling alongside with me as they watched my brother get hurt and they understood.

Klaus smiles satisfied and approaches our cell again, I want to stretch out, grab his shirt and pull him to me so I can beat his sorry rich ass.

"You better do, Damon" he states seriously "Or else this" he nods at my brother "will only be the beginning." I grit my teeth as I stare back at my brother, who's breathing heavily against the bars-he's staring at me intensely and shakes his head, trying to tell me not to agree to anything, but he doesn't understand how my heart breaks every time they raise their truncheons and hit him.

Klaus turns to the guards and I hear him say

"Keep it on until he loses consciousness, when he does, untie him and let this one go" he points at me. They nod and I grip the bars again

"What? NO, YOU PROMISED YOU'LL STOP! COME BACK HERE!" I yell as I watch him and Elijah leave "COME BACK!" he laughs out loud and I hear the door closing behind them.

"I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KILL YOU!" I shout out into the void but there's no one to hear me anymore.

I watch them hitting my brother hard and he looks up at me, his eyes full of pain and sadness, he yells out every time they crush his body and I keep trying to fight my way out of this cell, even though I know it's impossible.

"LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE YOU ASSHOLES!" I yell at them, but they don't even turn to me "LEAVE HIM!"

"Dam…" Stefan lets out my name after a painful sigh "Dam, it's fine" he says and tries to smile at me through all the pain he feels. I can't believe how strong he is right now, how he manages to fight all this pain and stay awake, on top of this to even comfort me.

I fall on my knees and lean my head on the bars, staring at them beating my brother up, anger rushes through me and consumes my entire human being, I close my eyes for a moment as I hear his whimpers and pray for them to just stop already, because I can't listen to this pain anymore. Klaus knew this, he realized it, which is why he ordered them to torture my brother-this is the worst way to hurt me and he knew it.

When he stops grunting, I raise my eyes up and realize that he has lost consciousness. His body is a bloody mess, I'm sure he has broken bones, maybe even internal bleeding, his chest is bloody and his sides are blue from the bruises already.

They uncuff him and drop him on the floor, kicking him a few times just for the fun of it or to make sure that he's out. I squeeze my hand between the bars and try to reach him.

"Stef" I mumble and try so damn hard not to let my tears go. The guys behind me are sitting on the benches silently, not sure what to do or say anymore-we've just had to watch them torture a nineteen year old boy because of our willingness to change the rules.

I realized that I can't-everything was bigger than me, I was just a simple worker, who couldn't do anything and now my brother was bleeding out on this floor, all because of me

"Stefan!" I say as I finally touch his hand "Wake up, brother" I beg him "Please, wake up."

I squeeze my eyes as I feel his lifeless hand in mine and I brush it with my thumb. The guards are somewhere above us, laughing at me and my attempt to bring my brother back to me. When I hear the gate open, I think that if it's Klaus, I'm going to rip him to pieces and never let him live another way, but then a loud male voice echoes in the hallway.

"What are you doing?" he says and I see a group of people led by a man in his fifties approach the guards, they stare at us for a moment and I see they're dressed in nice suits with some kind of initial that seems familiar to me on their sleeves "Let these people go."

"Says who?" responds one of the guards as he stands before my brother's lifeless body

"We're from the National Coal Miners Union" the man explains and the guards shift uncomfortably "You have no right to keep them here, they were peacefully protesting when you attacked them." one of them tries to speak up and argue with the guy, but the man in the suit continues "I demand you set them free right now or else I'll file a complaint."

"We can't just let them go, they're-" the guy pulls out an envelope from his inner jacket pocket and hands it to them

"I assume that if you refuse you'll have to call the senator yourself." he clears his throat as he smiles at them, happy that he shut them off. They stare at the letter for some time, pretending to read it carefully until they finally sigh, hand it back to him and unlock the cell.

The moment I'm out I rush to my brother's side and lift his head to my knees, shaking him and trying to bring him back to me, but he doesn't even flinch. The guards more away and the rest of the workers join me outside.

"You have to do something about this" I hear Ric's voice in the distance while I keep calling my brother's name "They tortured this boy just to make us give up!"

"It will be taken care of, I promise" the guy in the suit says "I'm sorry it took us so long to get to you." I feel him leaning down by my side and touching my shoulder. I guess that letter Tom decided to send got to them and they actually decided to intervene this time

"Let me help you, son." he says and I nod as I still hold my brother's lifeless cold hand in mine, praying that he's going to be fine.

* * *

 **EPILOGUE:**

 _ **SIX MONTHS LATER**_

I'm splashing water all over Stefan in our front yard, trying to help him cool off after a long day at the mines. He smiles at me and tries to run away, but I know he enjoys it and so am I, until he grabs the hose off my hand and gets it back at me, wetting my black shirt.

"Oh, Stefan, stop being a dick!" I joke and I watch him take off his own shirt. I swallow hard at the sights of the scars from the surgery they've done after Klaus beat him up so bad that he had internal bleeding and they had to remove his spleen. He barely survived it and the doctors told me it was a miracle that he managed to recover so well and even go back to work.

Things have changed drastically in the past months.

The Union made the MIkaelsons sell their share of the mines to another person and since then we were actually working like normal people. They raised our salaries and we had two days off instead of one, there was always a medic in the building in case some incident occurred and they gave us stamps for food. They changed the entire system and we were actually feeling way more safe while we worked now. I mean this is a mine and there's always a risk, but it was never as bad as before when they were letting people die just because of a small mistake that could've been prevented.

Stefan and I still worked extra hours but only because we were trying to earn enough for the baby and I smile as I hear the front door open and Bonnie coming out with my son in hands. Both Stefan and I smile and he drops the hose on the ground, waving at her.

"Welcome home, boys!" she greets us and just when I'm about to rush to them, I feel Stefan jumping on my back, embracing my neck with his strong shoulders

"Let go of me, you monster!"

"Why are you protesting, I'm just helping you prepare for carrying your son on your back!" he laughs out in my ear and jumps off me smiling. I jab him in the ribs and he kicks me with his knee. Soon, this turns into a fight and we're rolling in the grass, Bonnie scoffing from above us.

"You're such kids!" she scolds but I can see her smiling. I tickle Stefan and he lets go of me only so I can get up and give him my hand. "Don't you dare bring all that dirt inside or I'll kill you!" Bonnie warns and Stefan grabs the hose, cleaning up his face and his chest, then hands it off to me.

When we're done and we stop teasing each other, we climb the stairs and I take my son off Bonnie's hands, kissing her forehead and caressing her cheek while Stefan is already smiling at the baby and doing ridiculous funny faces trying to make him laugh. Bonnie gets back inside to bring us some tea for our broken black lungs.

"Come on, Jacky boy, give me a smile!" Stefan tickles his tummy and my son shifts in my arms, staring at his uncle confused

"Stefan, he's a baby, he can't just smile at you whenever you want to! When are you going to figure this out? On top of that, you're not even funny!"

"Of course, I'm funny!" Stefan furrows his eyebrows "Right, Jack?" he blows some air in his tummy and my son opens up his mouth raising his little arms joyfully in the air

"Stefan, you're ridiculous!" I exclaim as I shake my head at him, but I'm actually extremely happy as I watch my son grip his uncle's finger with his tiny hand. Stefan keeps making funny faces and I sigh pretending to be annoyed. Stefan's been trying to make him laugh for a week now and he was unsuccessful.

"Brother, why don't we go inside and-"" I start saying when my son's laugh interrupt me and Stefan gasps surprised! I look down at them and see Jack smiling at us, his mouth opened wide, his toothless smile makes my heart clench and his light giggles fill the air around us.

Stefan looks up at me, tears in his eyes and I smile at him, still not believing that this was actually happening.

"Not funny, huh?" Stefan crosses his hands on his chest and raises his eyebrow while I lean down and kiss my son's forehead

"I'm gonna go tell Bonnie!" my brother yells out as he rushes through the door and I hear him call my wife's name joyfully!

I smile as I stare down at my son and giggle with him.

"Your uncle is such a fool, isn't he?" I say even though I know he can't answer. He grins and grabs my finger this time, snuggling closer to my chest.

I sit down on the old wooden chair on our porch where my father used to rest after a long day at the mines, and thank God that everything's finally well.

* * *

 **A/N: So that's basically the end, I hope you guys enjoyed it and thank you for reading!**


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